Australia: 'I like riding horses really, really badly': Next generation of endurance royalty all smiles after first 40km ride

A tiny five-year-old from Queensland who stands just over a metre tall has braved darkness, the cold and rain to complete her first 40-kilometre horse ride in less than five hours.

Taylor Grogan, a fourth-generation endurance rider from the Sunshine Coast's renowned Sample family, rode into the diverse terrain of the Mary Valley's Imbil State Forest in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Dad Mark Grogan thought his daughter might be deterred by the conditions.

"I thought she'd pull the pin with the wet, especially when we had to go out and it was already raining before she got up."

But a determined Taylor — who completed her first 5km ride a month before her second birthday — would hear nothing of the sort...